Child sex abuse reporting: Some teachers lack courage and training to do the right thing

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh speaks in view of a Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare's ChildlLine during a news conference, Thursday, July 12, 2012, in Philadelphia. After an eight-month inquiry, Freeh's firm produced a 267-page report that concluded that Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno and other top Penn State officials hushed up child sex abuse allegation against Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago for fear of bad publicity, allowing Sandusky to prey on other youngsters. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

To many people, it's nothing short of bewildering that a string of Penn State officials failed to report suspicions that football coach Jerry Sandusky was molesting boys -- or that a San Jose elementary school principal did not alert police that a second-grader might have been sexually abused by her teacher.

Yet several disturbing cases around the Bay Area show that when it came time to point a finger at a colleague, teachers and administrators failed to do the right thing.

From Moraga to Palo Alto to San Jose, child sex abuse cases in schools and day care centers have surfaced alleging that school employees entrusted with the safety of students failed to do what their oaths and the law required: report to police or child protective services when they have a reasonable suspicion that a child has been abused.

Child advocates blame a lack of courage and a lack of training.

"It's not so much about protecting people, but not having the leadership ability to step up," said Margaret Petros, a commissioner on the Santa Clara County Child Abuse Council. "People in general want to get along and not rock the boat."

Still, as calls to child abuse hotlines across the Bay Area attest, many people do pick up the phone when they have suspicions. In Santa Clara County, about 2,000 calls are logged each month, with more than 60 percent coming from "mandated reporters" -- people required by law to intercede on behalf of children. And more than half of those calls come from school employees.

Tips from concerned people resulted in Contra Costa County investigating 9,961 cases of suspected child abuse and neglect last year.

But even when educators make the call, they often are confused about their responsibilities, said Nicole Huff, policy and planning manager with the Santa Clara County Social Services Agency. But the training her office offers, she said, is voluntary.

Still, most educators do what they're supposed to do.

"Ninety-nine percent of teachers and educators in fact do report," said Karyn Sinunu-Towery, assistant district attorney in Santa Clara County. "Many times the child is only comfortable with the teacher, and they come to school with a sad story of what's going on at home."

However, "the minute you have a child alone being blindfolded in a classroom separate from other children," she said, "it speaks for itself."

And that's the story that made headlines in San Jose this week: Months after a second-grade teacher was charged with lewd and lascivious conduct for allegedly blindfolding and molesting five children at O.B. Whaley Elementary School in the Evergreen School District, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office charged Principal Lyn Vijayendran with failing to report the abuse after a parent approached her. It was the assistant principal two months later who called child protective services after outraged parents called attention to a second case.

Evergreen Superintendent Kathy Gomez acknowledged Thursday that administrators did not receive training in mandatory reporting last year. But she quickly added, "I can confirm we will be having training this year."

Still, she defended the principal: "What came to the principal at O.B. Whaley was not an allegation of abuse. It was a concern from a parent."

For sex abuse victims who weren't protected by their teachers, the Sandusky and Whaley cases brought back painful memories.

"It's heartbreaking to hear about all the abuse cases breaking, and it's also gut wrenching to see the culture surrounding these cases that promoted and allowed these sad crimes to take place," said Kristen Cunnane, a student in Moraga schools in the mid-1990s.

For years, Cunnane was raped by PE teacher Julie Correa. And when Cunnane was inappropriately touched by another teacher, Correa failed to report it.

In the years before Cunnane's abuse, a girl alerted a Moraga school principal about a science teacher who sexually abused her. The administrator did not report the abuse to police, and two years later in 1996, six more girls came forward with abuse allegations. The teacher was placed on administrative leave and committed suicide.

In another San Jose case now playing out in Santa Clara County Superior Court, attorneys for three girls allegedly molested by day care worker Keith Woodhouse contend that the private Trace Child Development Center, housed on the Trace Elementary School campus, did not properly train the center's director. "The supervisor of the (alleged) molester did not know he was a mandated reporter," Alyson Gleason, an attorney in the civil suit, said Thursday.

California requires those in 40 professions to report suspicions of child abuse to law enforcement. And yet many educators get little guidance in sorting out what constitutes abuse and how to decide whether to turn in a colleague.

Bill Grimm, senior attorney of the National Center for Youth Law in Oakland, said there's no penalty for not training employees properly. He added that "often school districts may have a lawyer doing the training" rather than a child-abuse expert.

Palo Alto Unified, where middle school teacher Bill Giordano abused a teen for three years, does not offer professional training for teachers and aides -- only administrators every other year.

At Santa Clara Unified, instead of training, new employees must only acknowledge that they understand the mandatory-reporting requirement. And this is a district where a Wilcox High special-education teacher was sent to prison for having sex with a student.